Our final event for 2025 was held at the Hawthorn Hotel with an enthusiastic roll-up of women from across the industry. We were delighted to have Alexa Clark, part-owner of Kuranga Native Nursery, who spoke about the Kuranga story, the transition for Alexa and her partner Ben, and their future plans for the nursery. Alexa talked about her career prior to moving into the horticulture business, and how her background in marketing enabled her to use her skills and experience to rebrand Kuranga as ‘The Home of Australian Natives’. She spoke of the importance of setting goals and long-term planning. Kuranga also recently was the winner of the NGIV Horticultural Retailer of the Year 2025.
We were grateful to receive sponsorship of the event from Orths Nursery and NGIV. A pair of Fiskar secateurs and a donated native plant from Kuranga Nursery were our two lucky seat prizes won by Lisa McCann from Garden Centres of Australia and Holmesglen student Megan Griffey.
During the evening there were 2 presentations made to our 2025 scholarship and small business grant recipients – we congratulated Marlena Mende as the 2025 Dawn Fleming Student Scholarship winner and Sarah Vafidis owner of Patience Petal as our Small Business Grant recipient.
Thank you for your support and have a safe festive season. We look forward to launching our 2026 event calendar in the New Year and hope to see many of you at our various events in 2026.
